Present-day Shandong University is the result of multiple mergers as well as splits and restructurings that have involved more than a dozen academic institutions over time.[5] The oldest of Shandong University's precursor institutions, Cheeloo University, was founded by American and English mission agencies in the late 19th century (as Tengchow College of Liberal Arts in Penglai).[6] Tengchow College was the first modern institution of higher learning in China. Shandong University derives its official founding date from the Imperial Shandong University (Chinese: 山东大学堂; pinyin: ShāndōngDàxuéTáng) established in Jinan in November 1901 as the second modern national university in the country.[5]

Shandong University has seven campuses, all but one of which are located in the provincial capital city of Jinan. A campus to the northeast of the port city of Qingdao is under construction. The university has been classified as a National Key University by the Chinese Ministry of Education since 1960.[7] It has been included in major national initiatives seeking to enhance the international competitiveness of the top-tier universities in China such as Project 985[4] and Project 211.[4]

Shandong University offers master and doctoral degree programs in all major academic disciplines covering the humanities, science and engineering, as well as medicine.[8]

In the general university ranking performed by the Chinese University Alumni Association (CUAA), Shandong University ranked number 14 among Top 100 Chinese universities in 2010.[9] It reached the 11th highest score in the "teaching" category of this ranking.[9] Shandong University's engineering programs have also been ranked number 15 nationwide by the Research Center of Management and Science in China (2008).[10] For the last 10 years, Shandong University has been continuously ranked among the top 10 universities nationwide in terms of the number of publications included in the Science Citation Index.[3] Research at Shandong University is deemed particular strong in the areas of physics, mathematics, and medicine.[3]

Miao Quansun, a historian, bibliographer, and book collector, taught at the Luoyuan Academy and helped to establish China's first modern libraries.[11]

The Luoyuan Academy (Chinese: 泺源书院; pinyin: LuoyuánShūyuàn) was established in Jinan in 1733 by an imperial edict from the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.[12] The governor of Shandong, Yue Jun (simplified Chinese: 岳浚; traditional Chinese: 岳濬; pinyin: YuèJùn), received 1,000 taels of silver (approximately 37 kg) to fund the establishment of the academy.[12] The name "Luoyuan" (literally "source of the Luo [River]") refers to the original location of the academy near the Baotu Spring. The academy was dedicated to teaching the Chinese classics[12] to the sons of the gentry. Scholars affiliated with the academy include: Bi Yuan (畢沅, 1730–1797), Sang Tiaoyuan (桑调元, 1695–1771), Shen Qiyuan (沈起元, 1685–1763), He Shaoji (何紹基, 1799–1873), Kuang Yuan (匡源, 1815–1881), Wang Zhihan (王之翰, 1821–1850), Liu Yaochun (刘耀春), Zhu Xuedu (朱学笃, 1826—1892), and Miao Quansun (缪荃孙, 1844–1919). In 1881, the American Presbyterian missionaries John Murray (Chinese: 莫约翰; pinyin: MòYuēhàn) and Stephen A. Hunter (Chinese: 洪士提反; pinyin: HóngshìTífǎn) attempted to purchase a property adjacent to the Luoyuan Academy for use as a chapel. This led to a violent reaction when on July 13, 1881, literati from the Academy incited an attack on the property.[13] The incident, known as the "Jinan Jiaoan" (Chinese: 济南教案; pinyin: JìnánJiàoàn), had considerable diplomatic repercussions for the relationship between the Qing Dynasty and the United States. The Luoyuan Academy was rebuilt in 1896 to become the largest institution of its kind in Shandong.[12] Five years later (in 1901) it was replaced by the newly founded Imperial Shandong College which took over its campus[5] (today the site of the Provincial Bureau of Statistics on Spring City Road, Chinese: 泉城路; pinyin: QuánChéngLù).

The earliest precursor institutions that would later be fused into Shandong University were founded by American and English mission agencies: In early January 1864, Calvin W. Mateer, an American Presbyterian missionary, and his wife Julia Brown Mateer arrived in the recently opened treaty port of Dengzhou (Chinese: 登州; Wade–Giles: Tengchow) in the area of the present-day city of Penglai on the north-eastern coast of Shandong Peninsula.[14] Their journey had begun in New York on July 3, 1863, had taken them around the Cape of Good Hope to Shanghai, and had ended with a shipwreck off the coast of Yantai.[15] In the autumn of 1864, the Mateers opened an elementary school for boys (Mengyang Educational Society, Chinese: 蒙养学堂; pinyin: MéngyǎngXuétáng) in a Guanyin temple that had been sold to them since there were insufficient funds for its upkeep as a temple.[14] The school's first class consisted of six boarders and two day pupils.[14] The school was enlarged to accommodate 30 boarders and divided into primary and high school sections in 1869.[14] The high school became known as the Wenhui Guan (Chinese: 文会馆; pinyin: WénhuìGuǎn). The Tengchow College of Liberal Arts was formally established in 1882,[6] i.e., at a time when the school had been operated as a primary and high school for 18 years already. By 1889, enrollment in the college had grown to 100 students.[16] The six-year curriculum included algebra, geometry and conic sections, trigonometry and measurement, surveying and navigation, analytical geometry and mathematical physics, calculus, as well as astronomy.[16] Religion also featured prominently in the curriculum as well as in daily life at Tengchow College.[16] The College soon enjoyed a reputation for its high standards of academic excellence.[17] When W.A.P Martin hired young professors of Western learning for the Imperial Capital University (the precursor of present-day Peking University), 12 out of 13 young professors hired were graduates of Tengchow College of Liberal Arts.[14] In 1884, shortly after the formal establishment of Tengchow College of Liberal Arts, British Baptists established Tsingchow Boy's Boarding School in Qingzhou, also located in northern Shandong, but not directly on the coast.

A prominent member of Cheeloo University's faculty was Henry Winters Luce (1868–1941), the father of the publisher Henry R. Luce (founder of TIME Magazine, Fortune, and Life). Henry W. Luce initially led the fundraising efforts for the new campus in Jinan[6] (today the Baotuquan Campus of Shandong University). In this capacity, he raised 300,000 dollars between 1912 and 1915 from donors in the United States.[18] The buildings on the new Cheeloo campus were designed by the architectural firm of Perkins, Fellows, & Hamilton from Chicago.[6] Henry W. Luce was elected vice-president of Cheeloo University in 1916, but resigned in the following year already, because he felt that he had insufficient support for his vision of a university of major national influence from the then Cheeloo President J. Percy Bruce.[18]

Cheeloo University particularly made its mark in the field of medicine: From 1914-1936, the university built and subsequently expanded Cheeloo Hospital as a major facility for medical education in China. Between 1916 and 1923, the former Peking Union Medical College, the Medical Department of Nanking University, the Hankow Medical College, and the North China Union Medical College for Women were all moved to Jinan and merged into the Cheeloo University School of Medicine.[6]

Lao She, author of "Rickshaw Boy" and "Teahouse", taught at Cheeloo University and National Shandong University in Qingdao.

Cheeloo University attracted Chinese intellectuals and scholars. The writer Lao She, author of the novel "Rickshaw Boy" and the play "Teahouse", taught at Cheeloo University (1930–1934) as well as at National Shandong University in Qingdao and other universities between 1934 and 1937.[19]

In 1937, when the Japanese forces occupied northern China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Cheeloo University evacuated to Sichuan and operated on the campus of West China Union University[6] in Chengdu. In Jinan, the University's hospital remained open with a largely Western staff.[6] During the war, the Japanese military used the entire campus for housing about 1,200 patients along with 600 officers.[6]

During the Korean War (1950–1953), the Chinese government came to regard Christian schools as tools of "American imperialism" and hence embarked on closing them down.[16] Cheeloo University was dissolved in 1952. Its Medical School was fused with Shandong Provincial Medical College and the East China Norman Bethune Medical College to form Shandong Medical College (renamed into "Shandong Medical University" in 1985).

The initiative for the founding of Shandong University (as Imperial Shandong University, Chinese: 山东大学堂; pinyin: ShāndōngDàxuéTáng) in 1901 as a national, modern university came from Yuan Shikai, then the governor of Shandong province. Yuan Shikai was the chief military modernizer of the late Qing Dynasty whose control over a powerful army combined with his personal ambition played a key role in the birth of the Republic of China as well as its descent into warlordism in the early 20th century.[20]

Yuan Shikai had been governor of Shandong Province since December 1899. He had been appointed to this post to quell the Boxer Uprising in the province and to reassure the foreign diplomats in the country who were looking for quick decisive actions against the boxers.[21] In 1901, the same year that marked the end of the Boxer Uprising, Yuan sent a draft for the university charter (simplified Chinese: 山东大学办学章程; traditional Chinese: 山東大學辦學章程; pinyin: ShāndōngDàxuéBànxuéZhāngchéng) to the Guangxu Emperor and instructed Li Yukai, the magistrate of Penglai, to start preparations for the university.[5] The draft of the university charter was approved by the emperor in November 1901,[5] shortly after the Boxer Uprising had officially ended with the signing of the Boxer Protocol on September 7, 1901. Shandong Imperial University became hence the second modern national university established in the country after Imperial Capital University (simplified Chinese: 京师大学堂; traditional Chinese: 京師大學堂; pinyin: JīngshīDàxuétáng) that had been founded in 1898 and later became Peking University. The charter of Shandong Imperial University served as a model for subsequent foundations of imperial university. The original charter document for Shandong University is now kept in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan where it had been taken during the retreat of the Kuomintang at the end of the Chinese Civil War.

Watson M. Hayes was invited to organize Imperial Shandong University and served as its first dean.

Governor Yuan Shikai wanted a prominent position for Western learning in the curriculum of the new college.[22] Hence, he invited the American Presbyterian missionary Dr. Watson McMillan Hayes (Chinese: 赫士; pinyin: Hèshì, 1857–1944) who was then serving as president of Tengchow College[16] in Penglai to help with setting up the new Imperial Shandong University and serve as its president.[22] The appointment of the Presbyterian missionary W. A. P. Martin as inaugural president of the Imperial Capital University three years earlier[23] had set a precedent for this arrangement. Hayes arrived in Jinan in July 1901 and started the preparations for the new college.[22] Hayes also published Shandong's first successful daily newspaper and petitioned the Qing court to grant a holiday on Sundays;[24] As a consequence, Shandong University was closed on Sundays right from the start.[22] However, by the end of the year, Hayes and six Chinese Christian teachers he had brought with him had resigned already[22] over disagreements regarding the policy of mandatory Confucius worship for students of the imperial university.[25][26] Hayes went on to teach the Presbyterian Mission Theological Class in Chefoo (present-day Yantai) and continued to work as a missionary and educator in Shandong until his death in a Japanese internment camp in Wei County (present-day Weifang) in 1944.

Imperial Shandong University occupied the premises of the Luoyuan Academy which had been renovated and extended significantly five years earlier. It was opened on November 13, 1901 in a ceremony attended by Governor Yuan Shikai.[22] 299 student were enrolled in the first term,[22] of which 120 passed the first examination and 100 were finally admitted.[22] The first faculty had 50 members that also included teachers from overseas,[5] it was later increased to 110. The curriculum contained Chinese classics, Chinese history, social sciences, natural sciences, and foreign language[5] with more than 20 subjects being taught.[5] At the beginning, the curriculum covered 3 years, but it was later expanded to 4 years.[5]

"Western studies" faculty of Imperial Shandong University (presumably W. M. Hayes and the six Chinese Christian teachers he had brought with him)

The first president of the new university was Tang Shaoyi.[5] Tang had been educated in the United States (elementary school in Springfield, Massachusetts, high school in Hartford, Connecticut, and finally one year at Columbia University)[27] and had since then followed a career that had been closely linked to Yuan Shikai:[27] He had been a diplomat with Yuan Shikai's staff in Korea[27] and was appointed head of the Shandong Bureau of Foreign Affairs under governor Yuan Shikai in 1900.[27] He would later become the first Prime Minister of the Republic of China (in March 1912, again under the presidency of Yuan Shikai). As Prime Minister, however, he sided with Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang against Yuan Shikai and resigned after only three months in office.

Gate of National Shandong University in Qingdao. The building in the background was originally part of the German Bismarck barracks.

German Admiral von Tirpitz backed a plan that gave the Chinese government a stake in the new university of Qingdao.[28]

The first modern academic institution in the port city of Qingdao, then part of the German Kiautschou Bay colonial concession, was the German-Chinese "Advanced School of Special Sciences of a Special Type" ("Hochschule für Spezialwissenschaften mit besonderem Charakter", Chinese: 特别高等专门学堂; pinyin: TèbiéGāoděngZhuānménXuétáng). It was founded on October 25, 1909,[29] about 11 years after the German lease on the territory went into effect. In establishing the university, the German authorities took a much more accommodating approach towards the Chinese government than they had taken in the de facto annexation of the territory.[28] The negotiations over the establishment of the school were led by sinologist Otto Franke.[28] Although the German governor Oskar von Truppel vigorously objected to Chinese influence over the school,[28] Franke's collaboration plan received firm backing from Admiral von Tirpitz as well as the German envoy in Beijing.[28] The university operated under the supervision of the German naval administration, but was recognized and supported financially by the Chinese government.[29] The cumbersome name of the school ("spezial" or "tebie", i.e., "special") was chosen at the insistence of the Chinese government to reflect its special status, below the Imperial College in Beijing but above the other provincial Chinese universities.[28] The local informal name for the university was "Hainan School" in reference to an old name for Qingdao.[30] Studies were organized in a "preparatory level" with a six-year (since 1911, five-year) curriculum for students aged 13 to 15 years and an "upper school".[30] Subjects covered included German, history, geography, mathematics, natural history, zoology, botany, health, physics, chemistry, drawing, music, sports, as well as Chinese language and sciences.[30] Whereas engineering and natural sciences were taught in an entirely "Western mode", the Chinese and European approaches were combined in the teaching of the humanities.[28] Religious subjects had been excluded from the curriculum at the request of the Chinese government.[30] The number of students at the school rose to about 400 in 1914,[29] the school assembled a German and a Chinese library with about 5000 and 8000 volumes respectively.[30] School operations ceased with the beginning of the First World War in 1914[29][30] and never resumed.[29]

Gao Enhong, first president of the private Qingdao University and governor of the Jiaozhou territory

Poet Zang Kejia studied at National Shandong University and later co-edited the "Selected Poems of Chairman Mao".

Qingdao reverted from Japanese to Chinese control in 1922 and Qingdao University was founded as a new private university in August 1924; its first president was Gao Enhong (Chinese: 高恩洪; pinyin: Gāoēnhóng),[5][29] the governor of the Jiaozhou territory.[29] The former German-Chinese university was not mentioned during the opening ceremony and it was decided not to hire foreign teachers for the time being.[29]

Qingdao University was housed in the former Bismarck barracks that had been constructed for the German troops in 1903, i.e., during the time when Qingdao was part of the German concession in Shandong. The curriculum of Qingdao University was mainly focused on engineering and business administration[5] and a bachelor's degree was to be awarded after four years of study. Luo Ronghuan, later a marshal of the People's Liberation Army, was among Qingdao University's students. Qingdao University fell on hard times after the Zhili clique of warlords that had ruled Shandong since the takeover from the Japanese unexpectedly lost to its rival Fengtian clique in the Second Zhili-Fengtian War of 1924. Gao Enhong was forced to resign as president of the university and funding dried up.[5]

Warlord Zhang Zongchang ordered the fusion of six schools into a provincial Shandong University in Jinan.

The Fengtian clique installed the warlord Zhang Zongchang as ruler of Shandong. Zhang, an illiterate former bandit[31] who had built a reputation mainly for ruthlessness, brutality, and colorful antics,[32] ordered the fusion of six schools into a provincial Shandong University (Chinese: 省立山东大学; pinyin: ShěnglìShāndōngDàxué) in Jinan in 1926.[5]

In 1928, the Kuomintang Government in Nanjing regained control of northern China and Shandong through the Northern Expedition. Soon afterwards, preparations commenced for a National University in the province.[5] In August 1928, the government ordered the replacement of the provincial Shandong University with a National University in Shandong.[5] The National University of Qingdao was formally established with an opening ceremony on September 21, 1930.[5] In 1932, it was renamed "National Shandong University". Like Qingdao University, Shandong National University was housed in the buildings of the former Bismarck barracks. The University's chancellor, Yang Zhensheng (Chinese: 杨振声; pinyin: YángZhènshēng), followed the model set by Peking University in establishing an "inclusive" (Chinese: 兼容并包; pinyin: Jiānróngbìngbāo), "scientific and democratic" (Chinese: 科学民主; pinyin: Kēxuémínzhǔ) academic environment.[5] During this period, Shandong National University hired distinguished scientists, scholars and literary figures such as Lao She, Wen Yiduo, Shen Congwen, Liang Shiqiu, the nuclear physicist Wang Ganchang (faculty member from 1934 to 1936), and the embryologist Tong Dizhou.[5] Poet Zang Kejia, who later co-edited the "Selected Poems of Chairman Mao" (Chinese: 毛主席诗词讲解; pinyin: MáoZhǔxíShīcíJiǎngjiě, 1957), was a student of Wen Yiduo from 1930-1934 in Qingdao.

In November 1937, a few months after Marco Polo Bridge Incident that had marked the outbreak of a fully-fledged war in July of the same year, National Shandong University was evacuated from Qingdao. The university first moved to Anqing in Anhui Province and soon afterwards to Wanxian in Sichuan Province (today Wanzhou District in Chongqing).[5] Books, equipment, and administrative files were shipped in separate installments and suffered severe loss.[5] Classes resumed in Wanxian in Spring 1938, but were stopped soon after that on orders of the Ministry of Education.[5] Teachers and students were then transferred to the National Central University that had been moved from Nanjing to Chongqing[5] in the previous year. The books and equipment of Shandong University were placed into storage in the National Central Library, the National Central University, and the National Central Vocational School.[5] After the war, in the spring of 1946, the University moved back to Qingdao.[5]

From 1945 until May 1949, part of the Shandong University campus in Qingdao served as the headquarters for the U.S. Sixth Marine Division until it was disbanded on 31 March 1946 and later on for the U.S. Fleet Marine Force, Western Pacific.[33] In 1947, the Su Mingcheng Incident, in which an American seaman had killed a rickshaw puller after an argument, caused protests of the university students.[33][34]

In 1951, East China University (Chinese: 华东大学; pinyin: HuádōngDàxué) was merged into Shandong University. In the same year, the university published the "Journal of Shandong University". Cheeloo University was dissolved in 1952 and its Medical School became part of Shandong Medical College. Prior to the Sino-Soviet split, Soviet faculty members worked at Shandong University. In October 1958, the university moved back to Jinan from Qingdao. The marine sciences remained in Qingdao, where they later formed Shandong Ocean University.[5] In Jinan, Shandong University first occupied the Hongjialou Campus.[5] Construction of the new Central Campus commenced in 1959, during the Great Leap Forward and in the year of a great Yellow River flood. Shandong University was added to the list of National Key University on 10 October 1960.[7]

Zhou Enlai intervened to restore Shandong University during the Cultural Revolution.

Starting from early June 1966, schools in Jinan were closed down by strikes as teachers were "struggled against" in the Cultural Revolution.[35] Shandong University was also completely paralyzed by the events.[5] A complete restructuring was imposed on Shandong's university system: according to a resolution passed by Revolutionary Committee of Shandong Province on July 29, 1970, the liberal arts of Shandong University were moved to Qufu and combined with Qufu Normal College to form a new Shandong University.[36] The biology department was moved to Tai'an and merged into the Shandong Agricultural College.[36] The rest of the sciences was to form the Shandong Science and Technology University.[36] In 1971, the university's admission policy was also changed: in order to open the university to workers and peasants, new students were now nominated "by the masses" and then approved by the political leadership and the university.[5] Until 1976, a total of 3267 students who were admitted under this scheme graduated after completing a 2- or 3-year curriculum.[5] Premier Zhou Enlai learned of Shandong University's reorganization in 1973. Although he was already terminally ill with bladder cancer at the time, he intervened and ordered a return to previous structure of the university.[5] As a consequence, all organizational changes imposed by the Revolutionary Committee of Shandong Province were undone in early 1974 already.[37]

Shandong University at Weihai was established in 1984. In 1985, Shandong Medical College was renamed Shandong Medical University. From 1986 to 1996, Shandong University underwent a period of rapid academic expansion.[5] By 1997, is contained 14 colleges, 45 schools and offered 56 undergraduate program, 57 master degree programs as well as 17 doctoral degree programs.[5] Shandong University merged with Shandong Medical University and the Shandong University of Technology in 2000. With Shandong Medical University the former campus of Cheeloo University became part of Shandong University (as the West Campus, renamed Baotuquan Campus in 2009). The campus of Shandong University of Technology became the South Campus of Shandong University (renamed Qianfoshan Campus in 2009). Construction of the Xinglongshan Campus (then under the name "New South Campus"), a large new campus located in a mountain valley to the south of Jinan dedicated to education of first- and second-year undergraduate students, began in 2003.

Shandong University has a total of seven campuses. All but one of them are located in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong Province. Together they cover an area of 3.8 km². The only campus outside of Jinan is situated in the city of Weihai near the tip of Shandong peninsula.

Construction of the Central Campus commenced in 1959, about a year after the university had moved back from Qingdao to Jinan[5] and during a time that coincided with the Great Leap Forward, the Great Chinese Famine, as well as a devastating flood of the Yellow River (in July 1959). The Central Campus houses the central administration (in the Mingde Building, Chinese: 明德楼; pinyin: MíngdéLóu), the main university library, a large dining hall, as well as student dormitories. The central campus is home to the schools of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Economics, History and Culture, Marxism–Leninism, Life Sciences, Mathematics and System Science, Literature and Journalism and Communication, as well as Information Science and Engineering. One of Shandong University's hotels (Chinese: 山东大学学术交流中心; pinyin: ShāndōngDàxuéXuéshùJiāoliúZhōngxīn, or for short: "Xueren Dasha", Chinese: 学人大厦; pinyin: XuérénDàshà) is also located on the central campus. The roads within the Central Campus are named after concepts from Confucianism.

The Hongjialou Campus derives its name from the Hongjialou Square and is located immediately to the north and east of the Square and the Sacred Heart Cathedral (Chinese: 洪家楼耶稣圣心主教座堂; pinyin: HóngJiāLóuYēSūShèngXīnZhŭJiàoZuòTáng). The first construction on the campus dates back to 1936 when it was used for the Jinan Yifan Girls' Middle School (Chinese: 懿范女子中学; pinyin: YìfànNǚzǐZhōngxué) that was operated by Franciscan sisters (Chinese: 艾修女; pinyin: àixiūnǚ) of the Archdiocese of Jinan.[38] In 1948, the Yifan Girls' Middle School was combined with Liming Middle School (Chinese: 黎明中学; pinyin: LímíngZhōngxué) and its former campus became part of the Shandong Agricultural Institute that used it until 1958, when the Institute moved to Tai'an. In October 1958, the Hongjialou Campus became Shandong University's first Campus after the university moved back to Jinan from Qingdao.[5] The Hongjialou Campus houses the Schools of Law, Foreign Languages and Literature, Physics, Fine Arts, Physical Education, Philosophy and Social Sciences, as well as Political Science and Public Administration.

Alumni Gate (completed in 1924), the former main entrance to Cheeloo University and a landmark of the Baotuquan Campus

The Baotuquan Campus is the former campus of Cheeloo University and was established in 1909. The design for the campus was made by Perkins, Fellows and Hamilton, an architectural firm from Chicago renowned for its school buildings in the "Prairie School" style. The American architects attempted to include Chinese architectural features into the design of the buildings on the new Cheeloo University campus in Jinan. They did, however, mistakenly assume that the roof shape was the only distinguishing feature of Chinese architecture.[39] As a result, the buildings feature Chinese-style roofs on buildings that lack the matching support elements such as wooden Dougong brackets that characterize Chinese architecture. Historical buildings on the Baotuquan Campus include the Bergen Science Hall (Chinese: 柏尔根楼; pinyin: BǎiěrgēnLóu, formerly for Chemistry and Biology), the Mateer Science Hall (formerly for Physics and Physiology), the McCormick Hall, and the Alumni Gate (the former main entrance, construction completed on June 17, 1924). Baotuquan Campus houses the schools of public health, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and medicine.

The Qianfoshan Campus was established in 1949 and served as the campus of Shandong University of Technology. It became a part of Shandong University when Shandong University of Technology was merged into Shandong University in July 2000. The campus has a total area of about 420,000 square meters[40] and remains exclusively dedicated to engineering. It is home to the schools of Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, Control Science and Engineering, Energy and Power Engineering, Physical Education, as well as Civil Engineering. The roads on the Qianfoshan Campus are named after famous engineers and inventors from China as well as abroad.

The Xinglongshan Campus is the newest campus of Shandong University and also its largest campus in Jinan with an area of about 769,000 square meters.[41] Construction of the campus started in March 2003 and its first facilities were ready for use in August 2004.[42] The campus is used to house first- and second-year students of nine different departments. The Xinglongshan Campus also houses a Student Associations Activity Center with a total floor space of about 2000 square meters.[43]

The Ruanjianyuan Campus is home to the School of Computer Science and Technology as well as to the University's Software College.[44] Campus construction started in July 2001 and the campus now has a total area of about 267,000 square meters.[44] More than 3,000 students live on the Ruanjianyuan Campus. The campus is located next to a cluster of commercial software ventures, such as the China International ICT Innovation Cluster (CIIIC) and shares educational resources with these businesses.

Shandong University Weihai Campus was established in 1984,[45] its campus covers a total area of about 1 million square meters,[45] making it the largest campus of Shandong University. Shandong University Weihai Campus is organized in 13 departments that include the College of Korean Studies, the Business School, the Law School, the School of Journalism and Communication, the Art Institute, the College of Ocean Science, the School of Information Engineering, the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, the Institute of Space Science and Physics, the Mathematics and Statistics Institute, the School of International Education, and the College of Vocational and Technical Training.[45] To the west of the Weihai campus lies the Shandong University Academic Center, a beach-front hotel and conference center.

Construction of the Qingdao Campus started in March 2011 and is scheduled for completion in August 2013. The campus is located north of Xingshi Zhuang Village (Chinese: 星石庄村; pinyin: XīngshízhuāngCūn) in Aoshanwei Town (Chinese: 鳌山卫镇; pinyin: ÁoshānwèiZhèn) that is part of Jimo City and located to the northeast of Qingdao. The construction site is immediately adjacent to the seashore of Aoshan Bay and the coastal highway (Chinese: 滨海大道; pinyin: Bīnhǎidàdào). The total planning area covers about two million square meters, 43 percent of which are included in the first construction phase. When completed, the Qingdao Campus will have a capacity of 30,000 students; recruitment of the first class of 5,000 freshman students is planned for the fall of 2013.[46] The construction cost is estimated at 800 million Chinese Yuan (about 124 million US Dollars). The architecture of the new campus is intended to blend Chinese and western elements. Many buildings will incorporate the red roofs and other building style elements of the German colonial architecture in Qingdao. The master plan for the campus was developed by Perkins Eastman (New York). One of the founders of Perkins Eastman, Bradford Perkins is the grandson of Dwight H. Perkins, whose firm (Perkins, Fellows, & Hamilton) designed the Cheeloo University campus in Jinan. The campus will be dedicated to advanced science and engineering research, with a special emphasis on interfacing with high-tech industry and international academic collaboration. It is part of a plan to give Shandong University a presence that is distributed throughout the province[46] in a manner that is comparable to the University of California system, but retains a greater level of central control.[46]

At the top level, Shandong University is governed by a president (Chinese: 校长; pinyin: Xiàozhǎng) and a cabinet of vice presidents (Chinese: 副校长; pinyin: FùXiàozhǎng), each with a specific portfolio of responsibilities (e.g., research, international exchange). Central administrative departments (e.g., for finance, human resources, research, or international affairs) are led by a director (Chinese: 处长; pinyin: Chùzhǎng). Below the central administration, the university is organized by subject area into 31 faculties that are referred to as "Schools" (Chinese: 学院; pinyin: Xuéyuàn) as well as a graduate school. Each school is headed by a dean (Chinese: 院长; pinyin: Yuànzhǎng) and may be divided further into departments headed by a chairperson. Academic programs are offered in 11 main disciplines: philosophy, economics, law, literature, history, natural sciences, engineering, management, medicine, education, and military science. There are 104 undergraduate degree programs, 209 master's degree programs, and 127 doctoral degree programs. In addition, there are seven professional master's degree programs in law, business management, engineering, clinical medicine, public health, dentistry, and public administration.

The student population is around 57,500 full-time students, of which 14,500 are postgraduate students, and over 1,000 are foreign students (data from 2009).[3]

The major research efforts at Shandong University are organized in 34 national, provincial, and ministerial key academic disciplines, two national key research labs, 21 provincial and ministerial key research labs, a national engineering and technology promotion center, 10 provincial technology research centers, three national basic scientific research and personnel development bases; three social science key research bases approved by Ministry of Education; and three national fundamental science personnel development bases. Among its faculty are 23 members (including adjuncts) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Three general hospitals, including Qilu Hospital, and 12 teaching hospitals are affiliated with the university. The university library houses a collection of over 3,550,000 items.

Shandong University has established an international network for educational cooperation and has signed exchange agreements with over 70 universities from over 50 countries. Among its faculty are international researchers and scholars, who either visit for a short term (less than 1 month, 160 visitors in 2009), a medium term (less than half a year, 70 visitors in 2009), or for the long term (more than half a year, 80 visitors in 2009). Of the 80 long-term international faculty members, 30 language scholars teach languages such as English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, and Russian. The others are active in disciplines such as philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, law, international politics and economics, as well as Chinese classics and traditional philosophy.

About 1500 international students from about 40 countries come to study at Shandong University each year. An international student population numbering more than 1000 can be found on campus at any given time during the semester. Most of these international students come from Asian and African countries, but there are also students from Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Since 1980, Shandong University has received more than 10,000 students from over 60 countries. Popular study subjects are Chinese language and culture, but also economics and medicine. Furthermore, Shandong University participates in international short term exchange programs and receives approximately 2500 international student visitors for such programs per year.

Qilu Hospital was established as the hospital of Cheeloo University. Construction started in 1914 and was supervised by Harold Balme[6] (1878–1953), a British physician from King's College Hospital in London,[51] who would later serve as the third president of Cheeloo University (from 1921 until 1927).[51] The first building of the new hospital (today known as the "Republican Building") was inaugurated on September 27, 1915 by the military governor of Shandong, Jin Yunpeng. About 20 years later, the hospital moved to a new building (completed in 1936) and the old building was used by Cheeloo University's School of Medicine. Today, the Shandong University Qilu Hospital as a total capacity of 1,800 beds[52] and treats more than 1.9 million outpatient treatments per year.[52] It has departments include cardiology, internal medicine, hematology, gynecology and obstetrics, otolaryngology, general surgery, neurosurgery, and pediatrics.[52] The hospital is located at Wenhua West Road 107 in Jinan.

The Second Hospital of Shandong University has a capacity of about 1200 beds and has departments for neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, and internal medicine.[53] The hospital is managed by the National Medical Department and affiliated with Shandong University,[53] it is located at Beiyuan Street 247 in Jinan.

The Stomatology Hospital of Shandong University was founded in 1977. It has 105 employees and is organized into four research centers and two laboratories.[54] It is located at Wenhua West Road 44 in Jinan.

The song of Shandong University (山东大学之歌) was written by lyricist Qiao Yu (乔羽),[59] who also wrote the lyrics for My Motherland, and composer Gu Jianfen (谷建芬),[59] both natives of Shandong Province. The lyrics of the anthem are:[59]